From The Maw

Chapter Eleven

  We ride the elevator up to whatever floor the lady lives on. The doors open and me and Seven walk out. We walk down a small hallway to the left and enter an area with stairs leading up. We walk up some stairs and I see a locked door, there must be something important in there. We continue up the stairs and pass some pictures on the walls. As we walk down a hallway towards an open door I can hear humming coming from inside the room. I turn to Seven and put a finger to my lips. We sneak into the room and the first thing I notice is mannequins. We sneak past them and I see the lady. She's humming a tune and brushing her hair in front of a broken mirror. We sneak past her and into a different room. This one has a bed, a vase on a table, and a dresser. I have Seven hide under the bed and I go up onto the table by the bed and push off the vase. I quickly grab the key and run under the bed. The lady's humming had stopped immediately after I broke the vase.
  When she doesn't coms into the room I crawl out from under the bed still holding the key. I look at the key and see it's different from all the other keys I've used here. It has an eye on the end of it. I shrug and sneak out of the room with Seven behind me. I don't see the lady in the room. But I do see a geisha doll. I hand the key to Seven and crawl up onto her vanity. I pick up the geisha doll and throw it to the ground enjoying the sound it makes when it breaks. I realize all the geshia dolls look like the lady. I hop down from the vanity and take the key back from Seven. He takes out his flashlight and turns it on. We walk down the hallway and down the stairs. We go over to the locked door and I use the key to unlock it. We sneak inside and Seven turns off his flashlight. I pull out my lighter and hide the flame with my hand. The door slams shut and my lighter goes out. I can see my breath in the dark. I see shattered mirror around us. I grab Seven's hand and we run forward. I hear something behind us and I look over my shoulder to see the lady chasing us.
  We run as she groans while chasing us. We slide through a hole in the wall and some black mist follows. We're in a hallway. I take a deep breath and calm myself. We walk forward and Seven uses his flashlight to light the way. We turn left and continue forward. I see some more shattered mirrors as we ascend some stairs. We walk into a room full of mannequins and Seven turns off his flashlight. It's cold in this room too. We walk forward and go over to a boarded up door. We pull the bottom board off and go inside. Every mirror in here is smashed except for one on a pillow. I think there's something special about this mirror. I grab it and jump down from the small dresser it was on. Me and Seven walk out of the room we're in and out into the main room. I see the lady standing in the middle of the room with a light illuminating her. The light goes off and she dissapears into the darkness.
  Seven is right beside me and we walk into a small circle of light that appears. He turns and yells. "THERE!" I turn and point the mirror at the lady as she tries to get to us. A blue light shines on the lady, there's a burst of light and the lady retreats into the darkness with a scream. The light on me and Seven fades away and we quickly run to the next spot of light that appears. Seven puts his back to mine and we look around for the lady. She comes from my side and I use the mirror. Again it shines the blue light on her and with a burst of light she retreats into the darkness with a scream. I fall to the ground and drop the mirror. Seven quickly helps me up and I pick up the mirror.
  The light on us fades away and a light in the middle of the room appears. We go into it and stand back to back. We look around for the lady. She circles around the light, hiding in the darkness. She must be weak. She comes from my side again and I use the mirror against her. The blue light shines, a burst of light, she retreats again with a scream. I fell over with the burst of light. Seven helps me up and I pick up the mirror. We go into another light when ours fades away. The lady has to be getting weak. Again we stand with our backs against each other. We look for the lady ready to kill her. She circles around the light again. She comes from Seven's side and he yells. I quickly swing around and use the mirror. The blue light shines, another burst of light throws me to the ground and the lady retreats with another scream. I stand up and pick up the mirror. The lady's done playing. She comes right for us and I aim the mirror at her. Seven puts his hands on my shoulders helping me.
  More blue light, another burst, Seven holds me up, another scream. I'm getting tired of this. I want her to die! She can't have much left, she can't! I look around for her. She comes straight for us and I point the mirror at her. More blue light, a scream, the mirror breaks. Me and Seven get thrown back as the mirror breaks.
 
  I stand up and see Seven is still lying on the ground. I hope he's not hurt. I see a light flickering ahead and the lady is on the ground trying and failing to get up. I get a hunger pain and I slowly walk towards the lady. My stomach continously growls. I walk up to the lady and I see her neck is exposed. Her hair has fallen out of it's bun and is hiding her face. I walk over to her and bite into her neck. I finish eating and I absorb some kind of magic into my body. Black mist floats around me. "Six?" I turn to see Seven standing. He's braced himself to run. "Get behind me." I say. He does so without question.

  We ride an elevator down in silence the black mist still swirling around me. We reach the floor with those glutinous fat things and I start walking forward. Seven is sticking right behind me. As we walk forward lights flick and bust. One of the things turns to us and I somehow absorb what little soul it has. I do that to the next thing. And the next. I absorb every little soul these things have as they try to catch us. Me and Seven walk up some stairs and two doors with an eye on them open for us. A bright light shines on us and I put my hands up to shield my eyes. My eyes adjust and me and Seven walk up the stairs. As we ascend I can hear the cry of a seagull and the crash of a wave. We walk out of a doorway and onto a small platform. The ship or whatever it is sways with the sea.
  "What do we do now?" Asks Seven. I pull out Mono's paper bag and hold it in my hands. "I need to go find someone. You can go wherever you want, but I need to go find someone." I say. I look up and see a smile on Seven's lips. "You act like I'm going to let you leave without helping you." "What?" Seven walks over to me. "Six." He puts a hand on my shoulder. "Whoever you're going to go looking for, maybe it's the friend you lost, I don't know. But I do know that I want to help you find them." I smile and hug Seven. We hear a boat horn in the distance. "Ready to go?" Seven nods and I know that when we make it to the Pale City he'll be a huge help. That thought gives me confidence.

You ready to find me?

  "Yes Mono." I whisper.

The tv you've turned off is making weird sounds. You look up to see a black figure in the tv, you can't see the face or any other features.

HELLO! waves. I am back. Took me forever to find you. Nonono. Don't worry I'm not here to hurt you. God no. I'm here to tell you that the book you're reading. Yeah that one. Yeah well it has a sequel. Hold on hold on. Calm down. I haven't posted a chapter yet jeez. But I will tell you that soon very soon the sequel will be posted. The name of the sequel is Return to Pale City. So I will post an update and tell you that the book is out. So with that, have a nice day/night.

Your tv turns to static before clicking off.